I’ve always felt fascination for themes related to death and the dark side of people and things. I’m not an emo, goth or anything related. I think it’s something more like anthropological/psychological curiosity. That’s probably because I used to talk about death in my stories.
Well, Badirfilay is about this, actually, and more than death itself, it’s the feeling it brings to the ones who are left behind; the ones alive.
Death can have many faces but I’ve based my story on some legends and a compilation of stories I’ve been hearing and reading all my life. Folk stories of different countries and cultures, small stories, religious stuff and even personal things. I don’t think there’s an unique vision about that theme… Death and mystery can be treated from many different views. Every religion has its own way to explain what happens once we die. I have my own opinion about this, but I didn’t want to put my beliefs here. I thought doing Badirfilay and focusing on death in Badirfilay as an eclectic thing, would be more interesting.
It’s still quite early to talk about this because you’ve seen just a peek of it in the story.
At the point, some myths appeared already:
Banshees: A very interesting character in Celtic folk stories.
Greek Mythology, Kharon, the river Styx, and Sirens: Not the beautiful, friendly mermaids fairy tales have sold to us. No, the real mermaids as they are: creepy, dangerous, and probably not so beautiful, but enchanting in fact.
Genies of the 72 hours after Death: The belief that people “can be resurrected within those 72 hours”. It was a legend I heard when I was a child that impressed me so much especially because I heard it in a very sad moment of my life. That story is the basis of Badirfilay. I’ll talk about this later, when this shows clearer in the story.
Edgar Allan Poe: His obsession for young beauty perishing. Young ladies dying. A very common theme used in Badirfilay too.
Post Mortem Photography: A FASCINATING thing I discovered many years ago. The most beautiful and sad way to retain the memory of a dead beloved. Now seen as a creepy bizarre thing, but in those times, it was almost the only way to keep a visual tangible memory of those who died. Beautiful. In my story, they are used by the Docs to receive the information about clients to be revived.
As I said, you’ll be seeing many things related to those mysterious subjects. Some will be very well known by you (like vampires, for example) and some other are very anecdotal. But everything will be used to give the story that darkness it requires. It’s funny, for me, it is. Lots of work to put together and make them fit, actually, but I think it will be very interesting.I hope you’ll think the same. Thanks for reading!
Staff note: Badirfilay’s latest chapter has our hero Valdemar meet a mythical three-headed dog! Go check it out if you haven’t already.
About Ninona
Hello! I'm a freelance illustrator and comic artist from Barcelona who enjoys (needs) coffee. My current comic is the steampunk inspired Badirfilay.